03 January 2008

London Gloves

Check out these leather gloves from 1851 that have a Great Exhibition centric map of London on them. Whilst very cool, the scale and actual usefulness of said items seem a bit off - must have been a souvenir item only and not a low tech solution for a GPS.

I'd love to post a picture of these gloves, but I'm not sure about copyright laws, so here's a link to the gloves which are featured at the Maps: Finding our Place in the World Exhibit at The Field Museum in Chicago.

I use to live in Chicago - and if you ever go, I would highly recommend a visit to The Field Museum. What the Field Museum excels at is displaying their collections in context of their time and place of origin. For example the permanent Egyptian collection is displayed in an area that has been built as a recreation of the Tomb of Unis-Ankh. You wind your way down into the tomb and are guided to the artifacts via a narrative.

Admittedly it does sound cheesy but putting these objects in some sort of historical/visual context makes it better than the exhibit at the British Museum (which arguably has a more impressive Egyptian collection). At the British Museum the Egyptian collection is displayed quite clinically in a large hall. I find it a bit sad that the Egyptian Gods on display (which sit so proudly) are lost in the enormity of the stately hall (which is a marvel upon itself, but detracts from what is being displayed).

I guess that you do have to keep in mind that the British Museum is a free museum whereby the Field Museum has a bit of a hefty admission price. And, you can't see the Rosetta Stone at the Field Museum.

Chicago trips also mean you should see The Art Institute. Aside from the obvious Ferris Bueller link you should go because it has one of the best Impressionist collections I have ever seen. The American forefathers of the Art Institute bought them at a time when most of Europe where still snatching up the old masters and dismissed Impressionism as pure and utter rubbish. I believe the buying decision was heavily influenced by Mary Cassat, an American artist living in Paris.

My Grandparents donate every year to several organisations, including (I believe) The Art Institute, and in return they get a lot of 'corporate' type gifts from said charitable parties. I think that they're bemused by this - when you give to a charity, the point isn't really for them to spend that money on free gifts to donors...

A few years ago they pulled out a box of all the free things that they'd received to see if I wanted any of it. Sam picked out the 2006 Ronald Reagan calendar (he's British) and I got an umbrella that features one of my favourite paintings from The Art Institute - Paris Street, Rainy Day. The Geek in me loves running around London accessorizing with one of my favourite paintings (perfectly offset by a sea of dull black golf umbrellas).

And those gloves, mentioned at the top of my post, would look awesome with my umbrella.